• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Need assistance with a Acer Anyware 1100LX

M

Minerva10210

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Messages
75
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
Hi Guys,

Just got my paws on an Acer 1100LX laptop, it is a 386SX16, has 5MB RAM (1MB onboard and 4x 1MB 30pin SIMMS) and a Conner 40MB HDD.

The machine is in great shape looks wise, but seems like it is not working all that well, I have attached images to this post to illustrate this. Basically when one powers it up, it counts the RAM, then states the following error messages -->
CMOS Battery Bad
Equipment Configuration Error
Real Time Clock Error
It then gives you the option to continue or enter setup.
When you enter setup, it states that it has set dome options automatically, but when you restart (even warmboot) it still states the same messages. One oddity is that if you enter the cmos setup and then go to the "System Configuration Setup" screen, the machine hangs. :| It does not react to any keyboard input, yet if you press enough keys, it starts beeping for every keystroke thereafter. :( I have attached the pics in that order.

What I did try though, is to strip the machine, removing all the extra RAM, HDD, FDD etc. Basically just the bare board, but it still did not make a difference. There are only 3 jumpers on the board, marked as follows:
JP1 - 256/512 - from what I could gather this is for the amount of VRAM, if I set it to 256, the machine beeps and does not fire up at all.
JP2 - NPX - I reckon this is quite obvious to enable/disable the 387. Makes no difference either way.
JP3 - PWD - THis would be the BIOS clear jumper I presume. I tried it in both locations. At one point the machine only picked up 640KB RAM, and I thought great, but in the end it did also not make any difference.

Now in my quick search on Google, I did find someone who posted pics on Flikr, stating he replaced the Dallas Chip (A DS1287 in this case), but that is all that is mentioned there. Would this be a viable option, I am not very optimistic of finding a replacement here in South Africa.

Any other ideas of what to try?

Thanks!

The machine operational...
DSC_2611.JPG

The BIOS error message...
DSC_2613.JPG

The "Auto Config" of the BIOS...
DSC_2614.JPG

Me fiddling ;)
DSC_2655.jpg

A shot of the Mobo itself.
DSC_2656.jpg
 
Does the machine work if you select "continue"?
If so you either replace the battery (which might be inside the Dallas chip), or ignore the error.
 
@ Tingo

Well sort of, the machine does try and boot, but with no configuration, it does not know what to do (for want of better words)

@Kishy

Thanks for the info, I think I may give that a bash! As I noted in my original post, I mentioned seeing a pic on flikr that the person reckoned that he replaced the Dallas chip.

Will keep you guys posted, thanks for the info!
 
Urgh! I had a whole reply typed up and the board/internet/evil force had kittens all over it :? :(

Ok, so I will try again ;)

Firstly thanks for the info on fixing the dallas chip, I did that last night and it has made a positive change and no change at the same tine (Hope that makes sense ;) ) The positive is that I can now enter the BIOS, change and save settings. THe no-change bit though is that after saving the changes and rebooting the machine, it remembers the settings but still gives me a "RTC clock error" message upon bootup requesting either to enter setup or press F1 to continue. Not too sure whether the dallas chip itself is just fubar or what. I have quite a few motherboards laying about with dallas chips on them as well, will look for a board that is otherwise not working and remove that one's dallas chip and place it in the Acer and check if that does not make a difference.

Then I have a few questions relating to the HDD in the machine.
It is a Conner CP-3044, which is a 40MB 3½" IDE drive. Now the machine does not have the handy "auto detect" feature (how one becomes spoilt). I did a Google, and got conflicting info. If I recall, the settings I got were as follows (I did write it down on a stickynote but forgot to bring it with me):
1. 1024Cyl, 2HD, 17SPT
2. 780Cyl, 2HD, 40SPT
3. 707Cyl, 5HD, 17SPT
Now I am quite confused, which setting should I actually use? I tried them all, and they worked, but if I put random numbers in it does fail on startup stating fixed disk error. So I am quite confused. I did try the hdd on a AMD K7 board as well, but the drive gives errors on that machine, so I'm also not 100% certain the HDD is in fact ok :?
What I was thinking of doing is to use any one of the settings above, doing a low-level format of the drive in the bios and then do a fdisk and logical format. Will that work, or do you guys have other advise for me here.

In the mean time I will try and source another drive - I only have spare drives >2GB, and I presume the BIOS will only support <512MB drives, and lets face it 40MB is a bit small for a 386.

Phew! a lot of questions there, and I hope I was not rambling! ;)

Thanks!
 
The RTC clock error message probably reflects a failure of the 32.7KHz crystal on the Dallas chip. Not easy to repair--it's easiest to replace the whole chip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top